Semana Santa

by David Hewson

The mysteries of internationally best-selling author David Hewson are renowned for deft plotting and skillful accumulation of detail and atmosphere. Semana Santa finds Hewson in fine form, delivering a compelling novel infused with the sights and sounds of southern Spain.Semana Santa (Holy Week) fills the streets with gawking tourists and thousands upon thousands of hooded penitents. The week gets off to a grisly start, though, with the most unholy discovery of a double murder. Visiting academic Maria Gutierrez is only supposed to observe the subsequent investigation, but the police are stretched way too thin, and Maria is soon following a trail of clues that may lead to her own demise.(from the audiobook cover)

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Spain, Audiobook, Murder Mystery

478 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

DAVID HEWSON was born in Yorkshire in 1953. His books range from the Nic Costa series set in Italy to adaptations of The Killing in Copenhagen and the Pieter Vos series in Amsterdam.
He's adapted Shakespeare for Audible and in 2018 won the Audie for best original work for Romeo and Juliet: A Novel, narrated by Richard Armitage.
2019 sees the release of a new, full-cast Audible drama set in New York, Last Seen Wearing, and a standalone novel set in the Faroe Islands, Devil's Fjord.

Series:
Nic Costa

Pieter Vos

The Killing

Reviews

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Semana Santa must be a lot of fun... if you know nothing about the real Holy Week in Seville Spain. I understand there is such a thing as creative license but there are just too many errors! Bullfights have nothing to do with the Holy Week (thank Goodness), it is a completely different festival called the Feria, a week or two later. There are no parades, they are processions and most people who follow them do it out of faith and respect, not amusement. Women don't dress up in flamenco dresses for the Holy Week and you NEVER, ever wear a mantilla with a flamenco dress - only tacky dolls in souvenir shops do. The most distracting thing of all is Seville itself. La Torre del Oro is a separate tower that has nothing to do with the Cathedral, the Cathedral's bell tower is la Giralda. As I said, if you know Seville and its Holy Week, Semana Santa is just too distracting in its glaring errors to pay much attention. If you don't, the mystery is entertaining enough and the final culprit surprising.

[Desiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

ik ben een fan van de boeken van David Hewson en heb bijna al zijn boeken gelezen. Dit oudere werk niet dus mij aankomende trip naar Andalusie en Sevilla was een mooie aanleiding om het alsnog te lezen. Helaas is dit eerdere werk van aanzienlijk mindere kwaliteit dan zijn tegenwoordige boeken. Verwarrende verhaallijn en verschillende "feiten" over Sevilla en Semana Santa die niet kloppen.

[Fiona Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was hiding in my garage for many years, and was always overlooked in favour of something else. What a pleasant surprise it was to read a novel that gripped me from beginning to end, taking me on a ride of unexpected twists and turns. I am looking forward to reading more David Hewson novels as time allows.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Semana Santa are two books--my first and last David Hewson book to read. The two stars account for writing characters that were likeable, developing the bones of a good plot, and implementing some plausible twists. That's all I can say for what earned the two stars.

There's much to be said as to why it didn't earn better ratings. Firstly, based upon Hewson's pedantic sex scenes and macabre, voyeuristic lust for violence, the book's not worth the paper on which it is printed. Secondly, with Hewson's proclivity for such graphic sex scenes that drone on for chapters, is he another Jimmy Savile? Thirdly, in what is a very long, awful metaphor, the stupid Dove nightmares experienced by a young Dona Luceno and Maria decades apart are Hewson's way of saying that cycles can be broken only if the participants are willing to make difficult choices of which they are capable, in Maria's case; otherwise, the same bad things will continue if the same decisions are made regardless the time gap between similar situations.

Historical fiction, in this text, is truly non-existant, as the real Semana Santa is nothing like what Hewson portrayed in his demented mind, uh story. What a disappointing waste of time and money. Spare yourself the torture, and don't read this text!

[Alison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected to like this more - I like thrillers and have visited Seville (although I don't know it well). But I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would and suspect that within a few months I will struggle to remember it.

I found the characters quite difficult to identify with and to separate from each other. Quemada's personality seems inconsistent - he is first introduced as a mouthy, bigoted old-fashioned cop. Yet when he and his partner, Velasco are discussing prostitution and abuse it is he who shows understanding of their problems. I kept having to check whether it was Quemada or Velasco who held these opinions.

Some scenes went on for too long for my liking, the crowd trouble and the bull fight and aftermath for instance. And I found some of the descriptions a bit clunky and assumed it was due to poor translation until I realised the author was English! Some of the plot twists however were very good and made me sit up and pay attention!

It was a goodish solid read which I would have given three stars were it not for the appalling (to me) extreme ending (I mean at the extreme end of the book - the last thing that happens). No way!

Oh and like others, I had no idea what the bloody doves were all about!

[Mary Warnement · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hewson's first book is longer than necessary; scenes with fuller description than can hold my interest, and I'm not the sort who skims. I see traces of his ability in the later Nic Costa novels to create characters who are not on the surface appealing, who have nothing seemingly in common, but develop trust and respect for each other. I was intrigued by the setting, holy week in Seville. Strange to read a novel written and set in mid-1990s, with no cell phones. The plot and number of villains grew convoluted at the end, and the end itself, one of the main character's decisions, doesn't ring true to a woman. I did see that coming.

[Linda Chrisman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that was a shocker of an ending to say the least. Looking back I can see some clues, but the twists and turns of the story distracted me all the way. Ok, it may not be a factual photograph of Seville, but if I wanted a factual book I would have read a guidebook. It was what it was - a puzzler of a mystery.

[Helen Meads · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was very good up to the point where it got very gory (appropriate word for a book featuring bullfights) and disgustingly, disrespectfully objectifying. The twist was intriguing. He writes well.

This was an early Hewson. His later books are better, not least because they’re shorter.

[Rowena Eddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is compulsively readable, but gruesome and far fetched in plotting. Poor female characterisations.

[Amaro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Infumable.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

David hewson is one of my favourite thriller writers and, although this one disappointed me a little, it was still worth reading. He paints a convincing picture of Seville during Holy Week, a visit I have always wanted to make but after this I am having doubts.
The characters of the police officers and the criminology professor are generally interesting and well drawn, as were several of the other key figures. I felt thta there was an unnecessary level of gruesomeness about some of the details of the muders, but perhaps this went with the claustrophobia of the Holy Week celebrations, the oppresiveness of the legacy of the Civil War and of course, the corrida itself which is central to the book.
My final comment is that the book is a bot too long.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise was promising but the story lost its way and became unbelievable. While the ultimate mastermind had the requisite intelligence, patience, etc. that was profiled earlier in the story, the actual killers were not believable as those who had carried out the crimes as they didn't seem to have those qualities. And I totally missed why both Dona Luceno and MariaG were having the same bloody dove flashbacks. Was it supposed to be mystical?

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is a murder mystery in post-Franco Spain. The investigation unravels the mysteries from the past. Behind the facade of ordinary life the evil lurks. Written with the Spanish flavour, the story unites together a psychotic killer, bullring culture, corrupt politicians and religious fever. The secretst come into the light.

[Ann Tonks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is almost worth reading for the first chapter. I'm ambivalent because I think that a male writer has made choices on behalf of a female character that are unlikely and that includes the very end. Having said that, it was full of rich images of contemporary Seville as well as hideous stories of the impact of the Spanish Civil War.

[Elaine Kozak · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense, multi-layered book, almost too much. Can't deal with animal cruelty in any form so had to skip the bullfight pages. Plot kept circling in on itself. Didn't know what to think of the ending--a peculiar kind of redemption. A woman writer might have finished it differently.

[Mei · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason it took me a long time to finish this, but I really enjoyed it. He writes well and the hot, heavy rhythm of his words is for me very enjoyable. The story is almost incidental; but here there are enough gory details to please any lover of serial murders.

[Smaranda Bosma-Huizing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Also a great book from David Hewson. Really one of the best authors!

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down. I found as good a read as his Nic Costa books.

[ah li · Rating 3 out of 5]

weak storyline, but brutally gripping and intense.

[Pat Stearman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too many dream (nightmare)sequences for me! Having read a few of his non-Nic Costa books I come to the conclusion that they're OK but nothing like as good.

[Les · Rating 3 out of 5]

good. liked the Spanish background to the story especially. will look for more

[Nick Benson · Rating 3 out of 5]

aka 'Death in Seville'. OK, probably better written than the story deserves - serial murderer in Seville during Holy Week, bull fighting local colour.

[Denys Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

death in sevilla,engelse versie gelezen

[Les Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned. Fed up with being confronted with what now appears to be the compulsory homosexual. Sorry if I offend, but I'm offended.

[Ruth Lawton]

Couldn't get on with it. Abandoned it. Oxfam will benefit :-)

[Kay Katsivas]

Good. Readable. Funny ending

[Joeri Verschaeve · Rating 4 out of 5]

great crime novel !

[John Peeters]

A nice book to read. Near the end it was really suprising.